Lenovo's lineup of Windows 8 convertibles

Summary: Lenovo has announced a lineup of Windows 8 hybrids designed to work as both laptops and tablets. Rather than choosing one convertible design, the company will offer several models including two versions of the flexible Yoga.

The Yoga 13 has a 13-inch (1600x900) display and uses Intel's third-generation Core processors, up to 8GB of memory and either a 128- or 256GB solid-state drive (SSD). It measures 0.7 inches thick and weighs 3.4 pounds.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Yoga 13 has a dual-hinge that folds backwards 360 degrees to switch between laptop and tablet modes.

Image Source: Lenovo

In addition to the tablet and laptop modes, the Yoga 13 can be used in a "stand" mode that is good for watching movies or Web browsing.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Yoga 13's "tent" mode is a good option for viewing content in cramped spaces such as an airline tray table.

Image Source: Lenovo

The smaller version of the Yoga is based on Nvidia's Tegra 3 and has an 11.6-display (1366x768), up to 2GB of memory and either 32- or 64GB of storage. It is 0.6 inches thick and weighs only 2.8 pounds, yet Lenovo says it will get up to 13 hours of battery life.

Image Source: Lenovo

Like the 13-inch model, the Yoga 11 has a dual-hinge display that folds backwards up to 360 degrees.

Image Source: Lenovo

In addition to the tablet and laptop modes, the Yoga 11 can also be used in a "stand" mode that is good for watching movies or Web browsing.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Yoga 11's "tent" mode is a good option for viewing content in cramped spaces such as an airline tray table.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Lynx has an 11.6 inch (1366 x 768) display that detaches from a keyboard dock to switch to tablet mode. Like competing models from Acer, Asus, HP and Samsung, the Lynx is based on Intel's recently-announced Atom Z2760 (Clover Trail) dual-core processor.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Lynx tablet is 0.4 inches thick and weighs 1.4 pounds. The keyboard adds another 1.5 pounds to the system weight, but it has an extra battery that stretches the battery life to 16 hours, according to Lenovo.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Twist looks like a conventional ThinkPad with a 12.5-inch (1366x768) display, third-generation Core processors, up to 8GB of memory and either a hard drive or 128GB SSD. At 0.8 inches thick and 3.5 pounds it is small enough to qualify as an Intel Ultrabook.

Image Source: Lenovo

The Twist's 12.5-inch display rotates 180 degrees and folds flat. Lenovo has been making Windows convertibles using this design for years and I use one of them, the ThinkPad X Series convertible, every day.

Image Source: Lenovo

Like the Yoga, the Twist works in a "stand" mode for watching movies or browsing the Web.

Image Source: Lenovo

Finally the "tent" mode--as with the Yoga designs--is a good option for content consumption in cramped spaces such as an airline tray table.

John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. He now works for a private investment firm, which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are...
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<p>John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. He now works for a private investment firm, which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed.</p>